We finally finished our D&D game of nearly seven years and statted up new ones for the next story - a swashbuckling adventure in the same world, ten years later. New characters mean new drawings, starting with the captain, Dami, and the quartermaster, Esh.
Usually making characters for me is a solitary thing, but this time I brainstormed with another player and these characters fell in crazy, ridiculous, hundred-page-backstory love. To suit their romance novel backstory, I drew them in a romance novel scene - a concertina lesson belowdecks that is about one note away from being a lot more.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/674c033f-16c0-4d3c-a87d-5811df5ff6cf_rw_1920.jpg?h=5c2f4bbc10c95365a24fa9732c70e76a)
Vector drawing in Adobe Illustrator.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/79aec440-2147-414d-a373-91b76e749051_rw_1920.png?h=029f78d6de49f41ea72cec9ef1233096)
Dami face detail. I play the captain, a lifelong sailor and longtime pirate.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/5e7832ac-f1dd-44be-bb51-1c2dcda3cd82_rw_1920.png?h=fd4e48cc84960bcacbf78f60a4395aee)
Esh face detail. He had to strongly resemble his father while still looking like his own person.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/6a4b5358-b130-412b-ba57-d9a8d736ab5c_rw_1920.png?h=0b6e5187546cc0ad0bbcb3b3c4bf40c3)
Concertina detail. I have a couple of cheap concertinas of my own that made decent references for the overall pose, but these two needed something much fancier. Thankfully there's an accordion/concertina-focused music store in western MA, so I was able to get lots of reference photos on a trip to Northampton.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/355b196a-82f4-4106-bad3-e63b312ebddd_rw_1920.png?h=20e0ab3c3e75020e33a27be51f5cbaa3)
Hand detail. Esh's left arm was an opportunity to inject a bit of his player into the drawing. Esh's arm hair is based off of reference photos of my friend's arms.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/e51e5445-7916-436f-9250-55fe2342f9f2_rw_1920.png?h=a4c2d36bdf97c97566b5e6df30f09afc)
Ring detail. These two have rather ostentatious taste in jewelry, and it was fun to have the chance to draw so many rings.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/41c470a5-bb04-4590-bdd4-0b6370d5169b_rw_1920.png?h=dbbde4acd2f7e5160e17fa5b2a7abc8e)
The whole drawing in outline mode. Even on my 22" Cintiq, a lot of the most detailed areas are solid black.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/c0543e2a19d1db6f6fad8ffb324863af/a3e8a664-652f-47b7-b1bc-8ce9175a7511_rw_600.gif?h=c94372854013d6ebcc2bc05b64e121bf)
Progress shots. I started this about a year ago and got stuck partway through. I went back to it after about 5 months of not even opening the file to take a peek, and I really think the time away did me a world of good. Sometimes it's helpful to get a bit of perspective.